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VALLECITO — Jim Patton walked across sand, gravel and splintered limbs in his backyard in southwestern Colorado. Four weeks prior, it was a lush grassland with a beach along a creek. Then the floods came.
“It’s like ground zero,” said Patton, who lives part time in a house in La Plata County north of Vallecito Reservoir. “This is where the majority of the water came across.”
The water was the remnants of Hurricane Priscilla and tropical storm Raymond, which dropped 10 to 12 inches of rain on parts of southwestern Colorado. The storms saturated dry soils, sending water into high-country creeks from Vallecito to Pagosa Springs and South Fork and turning them into raging rivers.
Across southwestern Colorado, the floods caused $13.8 million in damage to public bridges, riverwalks, water systems and roads. In La Plata County, the damage totaled over $7.5 million for residential and public property.
Vallecito was one of the most impacted communities in the area, officials said. First responders did 11 high-water rescues and evacuated about 390 houses — some primary dwellings, some vacation homes or cabins — from Oct. 11 to Oct. 16.
One month after the floods, emergency responders were going house to house to assess damage or talking with residents about resources. Vallecito community members said they were frustrated, overwhelmed, still in shock. Many were battling insurance companies and bureaucratic rules, while a few, whose properties were heavily damaged, weren’t even back in their homes.
As residents rush to clear debris and prepare for the coming winter snowfall, one question still looms: What will happen in the spring when all that snow would melt and rush down the creek again — this time toward homes sitting in a drastically changed, much more shallow flood plain?
“If you talk to most people, I think they’re worried about the future. They’re worried about spring runoff,” Kelly Patton, Jim’s wife, said. “Now the level of the base of the river is so high; it’s 2 feet higher.”
The flooding was severe enough to warrant multiple emergency declarations as officials rushed to get more boots on the ground.
La Plata County issued its first emergency declaration for a flood to call in state resources. It was also the first since the 416 fire in 2018. Colorado issued its own verbal declaration Oct. 12, allocating up to $1 million for the emergency response and recovery effort. The state increased its funding maximum to $6 million Monday.
Colorado is calling for help from the federal level — but those resources might be slow to come.
Gov. Jared Polis requested a major disaster declaration Wednesday from President Donald Trump. It would unlock funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for work like removing debris, repairing public roads and bridges, and helping communities protect against future events.
The White House will decide whether to approve the request based on the level of damage, but the timeline is unknown, and some requests take years to approve. The state is also looking at other federal aid programs, said Micki Trost, spokesperson for the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
If the state’s request is approved, the relief funding would filter down to state and local governments. The state did not request relief through FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program, which offers financial assistance to individuals.
The long road to recovery is just getting started. Trost expects state staff to be working on flood recovery for at least six months. Some projects end 10 years after the incident, she said.
“There’s going to be a lot of work that’s going to have to be done in the spring,” Trost said.
The first 24 hours in one community: Vallecito
Rain was falling in spurts Oct. 11 as Vallecito residents trickled through the Red Cross shelter at Bayfield High School to check in with emergency managers. Volunteers prepped cots and food, but only a few evacuees decided to stay the night.
Warnings started to come in earlier that week as the National Weather Service told La Plata County staff that churning Pacific storms were heading their way.
Early in the morning Oct. 11, the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District Fire Chief Bruce Evans heard an alert go off on his phone: Creeks upstream of Vallecito were rising, quickly.
Within hours, the fire district told the county that nearly 400 houses needed to be evacuated.
The county’s year-round emergency team has two workers and a budget of less than $300,000. But during an emergency, the pair calls in reinforcements. Within an hour, the county launched its incident management team. At its peak in the first week, the responders totaled over 135 people from nearly 40 local, state and federal agencies.
The responders turned on Zoom and radios. They headed to the emergency operations center to plan for immediate needs: Where did evacuees need to go? For how long? And what can they do with their pets?
It’s something the team trains for during the year, even doing annual mock-emergency training, Legarza said.
“We’re a lean, mean fighting machine,” Legarza said.
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One homeowner, Barney Miller, said the water on his road seemed to jump 8 inches in about 10 minutes. His friend came over and had to carry Miller’s mother, who is 91, out of the house.
“Water was getting into my boots. I’m in water halfway up to my knee,” he said. “I’m now starting to realize that this is much more than I’ve seen in the river before.”
The Pattons were at their home in Arizona getting videos and photos of the floodwaters from Vallecito friends. The dirt road on either side of a concrete bridge — the only way to their vacation home in Vallecito — was eroded. The water also carved a deep rut in the main drive up to their house, which they co-maintain with neighbors.
Chuck Freeman, who lives in Vallecito all year, was at his house, watching Grimes Creek rise and start to cut into his lawn before flooding a lower level of his neighborhood. Rick McCune, another year-round resident, was away from home when he got the notice to evacuate. He rushed home to gather some belongings — and roust his neighbor, who was sitting in bed playing Wordle and didn’t realize it was raining, he said.
Leaving, he said, “turned into a whole other nightmare.” His home was almost destroyed — it is right next to two others that were torn down — and he had not been able to return as of early November because of the damage.
His advice to future evacuees?
“Bring more underwear,” McCune said — plus the basics, like important paperwork, medicine, devices and chargers.
The first weeks
In the first week, officials were focused on gathering information and assessing damage to try to make the area safe and secure.
Officials launched daily meetings at 10 a.m and 4 p.m., which Legarza called their “battle rhythm” as they worked 80 to 120 hours in a week. They organized guided tours for residents to check out their properties or gather important items, and by Oct. 16, they lifted evacuations.
Other agencies started arriving in the first days after the flood: Staff arrived from the state public health and homeland security. Staffers from Mile High United Way’s 211 help line arrived to assist with coordinating volunteers, assessing community needs and connecting people with resources. Volunteers with Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian disaster relief organization, landed and started removing debris.
There are 15 emergency support functions for how disasters are organized, each with its own area of focus, Legarza said.
“Each agency can do a few different things that maybe the other agencies can’t do,” she said.
Vallecito residents inspect damage and work to redirect water flows after October floods left much of their community in recovery mode. (Jeremy Wade Shockley, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Residents were staying with friends or family, in hotels or at shelters. Some decided to stay in Vallecito to try to help. Many were anxious to get back to see if their homes were damaged and how badly. Some were frustrated by changing meeting, check-in and shelter locations.
People in the nearby town of Bayfield helped pack sandbags to build flood barriers. Churches and nonprofits dropped off firewood for houses warmed solely by wood-burning stoves.
About 20 volunteers with Samaritan’s Purse spent two days cleaning up the Patton’s property. They brought in 48 truckloads of gravel to repair the roads up to their house, the Pattons said.
“We cleaned mud out of houses. … Anything in the homes that was contaminated, we drug out of there,” said Charlie Downs, a local resident and volunteer with the nonprofit.
The beginning of recovery
About three weeks after the floods, officials and community members gathered at the Weminuche Woodfire Grill in Vallecito for the first long-term recovery meeting. Residents listened to updates from emergency managers and rotated through question-and-answer stations with different agencies.
The most popular station featured a huge map, spread over a billiards table under the glow of a Pabst Blue Ribbon lamp, showing the post-flood landscape. Residents peppered staff from the Natural Resources Conservation Service about their plans to remove debris from Vallecito Creek — and concerns about letting nature run its course.
The floodwaters completely reshaped the creek’s channel, making it more shallow and broad — a possible risk to homes during future storms or high spring runoff. Some residents wanted the sand, rocks, trees and boulders removed to protect their properties. Others worried nothing would be done.
Community members ask first responders and government representatives about flood recovery while reviewing a post-flood map during a meeting on Nov. 5 at the Weminuche Woodfire Grill in Vallecito. Earlier in the meeting, residents listened as officials offered updates on the emergency response one month after floods struck southwestern Colorado. (Josh Stephenson, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Vallecito Creek reached around 7,000 cubic feet per second at its peak, fell and then started to rise again as the second storm hit. Already the change in the channel was clear, Miller said.
“At 900 (cfs), it was already running back here,” he said, pointing to part of his creek-side yard. “That gives you a gauge of how much material got into the riverbed.”
The don’t-do-anything option is not on the table, said Todd Boldt, assistant state conservationist for water resources for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The federal agency and Upper Pine River fire district will work on the river channel to reduce the threat of future flooding.
That could mean debris removal or helping to stabilize streambanks to protect homes, life and other infrastructure. They’re still weighing their options, he said.
If anybody goes out and works in a stream they will need a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a county floodplain permit, Boldt said. Those are required so they don’t make a change to the flow of water that will impact their neighbor or somebody downstream.
Evans was especially worried about a massive logjam upstream on the Vallecito Creek, particularly because it can ice over during the winter, he said.
“If we don’t get rid of that logjam now, in the next month, while the water is low … it’s going to be much more difficult and much more risky,” he said.
Residents are battling other complicated costs, jurisdictions, insurance policies and regulations. Homes are supposed to be 50 feet from a stream’s high-water mark in La Plata County, but the floodwaters eroded banks and ate into people’s yards.
Freeman lost 10 to 15 feet of his lawn when water surged through Grimes Creek in Valleicto.
“That was the irrigation system for the yard,” he said, pointing at pipes sticking out of the torn up bank.
One person said her insurance provider never informed her that the policy lapsed. Flood insurance is often separate from homeowners insurance. Nationally, about 4% of homeowners have flood insurance, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The neighborhood also features a small, winding maze of dirt roads, most privately owned. If residents pay county tax dollars, some wonder, why can’t the county help take care of the roads?
“We have about just over 650 miles of county-owned roads, and we can only spend county money on county roads,” Legarza said. “That’s just the law.”
On their property in November, Jim Patton climbed onto a wall of rocks and other debris deposited by an excavator to build a flood barrier. Before October, it was a peaceful spot for him to write, listening to the river and the birds with the smell of ponderosa pines in the air and a view of the Weminuche wilderness in his view, Patton said.
But the chairs washed away and many of the beautiful trees had fallen. The area was covered by sand and boulders.
“Those trees embedded there might help turn the water one day if it gets high,” he said. “Basically the water comes in and undermines these rocks, and it’ll all give up again.”